Alexander Family's Big Adventure: Fred!!!!

It all started in my freshman year in college. I was innocently sitting in my chemistry class, trying to listen to one of the teachers' first lectures of the semester, and suddenly I heard this loud, crackling noise right next to my ear. It had been years since I'd last heard that sound, but I immediately identified it as that wonderful, fun candy from my childhood, Pop Rocks. Once identified, I stoically listened even harder to the professor, refusing to react. Fred called me a bad word under his breath, and after that, our friendship was sealed forever.

Although I lost touch with Fred shortly after college, he has been a bit of a constant in my life for the past 17 years. (Wowza!) He took me to a semi-formal in college with his fraternity just so I could have the experience. After the pop rocks episode, I learned that he was renting a room for the cost of the apartment I was renting. My landlord had a vacant apartment, so Fred became my neighbor for a while. One time, when I was particularly hungry and starting to feel pain in my kidneys, Fred bought a pot roast that I cooked for us. Good-bye kidney pain! (One can eat only ramen noodles for so long, I learned.) Fred is funny and smart and honest and funny (I said that twice intentionally because he is really funny!) and fun to be around. And he came all the way to Germany to visit us!! (Obviously, that means a lot to me!)

We've had such a good visit! Today he's going to Frankfurt while I go into work. Tomorrow we take him to the airport. Two days ago, he went to Mainz by himself, and figured it out even though I had him stay on the train and had him end up walking more than necessary. Sorry, Fred!! The first day he was here, he and David got to do a Rhein River cruise. Thankfully, because I really think David needed to experience that!

But my favorite has been our trip to Stuttgart. We drove straight to the Porsche museum and parked without difficulty. I'm not a motorhead by any means, but it was a really great museum, and I immensely enjoyed myself. I had fun taking different perspectives with my cell phone camera. The kids were moderately good throughout the museum.

Then David drove us closer to the city, and Fred had his first ever döner. Then we went to the main square, visited the Landesmuseum for free (fortunately, because Lilly was not good and I really didn't get to see it). I appeased Lilly with YouTube's BabyBus on my phone, and she settled down enough for me to get a run-through. Then we went to the church, and I was delighted to see stained glass windows similar to the windows in Mainz. Intriguing! Of course we had to get ice cream.